Animorphs: The Alternate
by AnkeZuki
Summary: A strange girl from another dimension suddenly appears in the Animorphs' lives to warn them of one of the many futures that may come to be if they choose the wrong path. But when the Yeerks discover what's going on, they seem to have something to say abou
1. Chapter 1: Jake

Animorphs: The Alternate

By: Zuki

I REALLY don't want to list everything that I happen to mention in this fic that doesn't belong to me so I'll just say this: If you read something here that you don't remember seeing in any of the Animorphs series, then it belongs to K.A. Applegate. And I'm not talking literally like "OMG SHE SAID KLEENEX I CAN SUE HER :DD!!11eleventyone". Oh and...I know the series ended but lets pretend it hasn't yet, 'kay? e.e;;

Chapter One- Jake

_Ow._ A wad of paper bounced off my head and into my lap. I glared at Marco, who was obviously the perpetrator of this horrible crime. He pretended to be concentrating on what the teacher was saying. I was in the process of opening it up when I got the feeling that everyone was looking at me. Looking up, I saw that they were. The teacher was tapping her pointy-toed heel on the tile. _Tap tap tap tap._ "Um..." I didn't see what she was so angry about.

"I asked you a question, boy. What's the answer?"

"I'm sorry I didn't hear the first part of the question..." I lied meekly. She frowned and walked up to my desk, snatching the wad of paper out of my hands and reading it aloud.

"What is this? 'Dude, are you awake?' Passing notes AND taking a nap, are we? Question- What was the name of the man who named named the city Alexandria, Egypt after his horse? If you did your homework last night you would know the answer." I glanced around the room, hoping to find the answer somewhere. I did, in fact, do the homework-I just couldn't recall the answer. Someone with red hair who sat behind me hissed something that sounded like "Sander the Grape".

"S...Sander the...Grape?" The class fell into a fit of laughing and the teacher just snarled as she walked to the front.

"Alexander the Great! You'll be turning in a two page essay on . As for homework, everyone needs to turn in a one page essay on the achievements of Alexander the Great. Late assignments will NOT be accepted unless there is a reasonable explanation, when the bell rings you are dismissed." The bell rang.

Marco walked over to my desk as I put away my books and he grinned, "Man, I didn't know you had a sense of humor. That was great: 'Sander the Grape'. It's going down in the history books."

"And it's all your fault." I grumbled, then I suddenly remembered. "Oh, hey. Um...you!" I called out the the girl who sat behind me as she was walking out the door. I ran out to meet her. "Thanks for...trying to help..." She laughed and raised her eyebrow at me.

"I said Alexander the Great, not Sander the Grape. Jake, right? You're really funny."

"Oh...you're the new girl right? Sorry, I forgot your name..." _She's really pretty..._I couldn't help thinking. _No, no. Think about Cassie. Cassie....wait the new girl is talking._

"You space out a lot. I said my name was Layla. Listen, I gotta go to Ad.Calc. I'll see you around, 'k?" Then Layla swished around the corner and out sight.

"Oh man, AD CALC, as in: Advanced Calculus? Dude, she's friggin smart- thats like a million years ahead of us. She's also pretty hot..." I totally forgot that Marco was still there and jumped, startled.

"Whatever, man. Come on, lets go. We still got classes." I said quietly, still slightly mad at him.

During lunch, Marco decided to take it upon himself to tell everyone of my humiliation in History. "Sander the Grape?" Rachel said, with a grin on her face. "You seriously thought there was someone running around conquering Eurasia named 'Sander the Grape'? Couldn't you have, like, tried to make sense of what you thought you heard? Thats seriously funny, I thought you were smart." Oh man, I hated this. I looked around to find something to get away from more embarassment. There!

"Right. I'll be right back, bathroom..." I mumbled and slid out of my seat.

As I walked out the bathroom I almost ran into Layla, who was standing there looking around anxiously. "Oh, hey Layla. I didn't think I'd see you at lunch seeing how busy it is..." She looked startled to see me and then it went away before I could blink.

"Jake! Hey. Have you seen Mr. Chapman around?" I blinked. Mr. Chapman? Why was she-? "I needed to ask him something about my registration...my name was um, spelled wrong on an important paper I got back." Layla said quickly, noticing my suspicious look even though I tried to hide it. But of course, it wasn't like everyone was a Controller. That was a perfectly logical explanation, no need to get worked up. I went back over to my group and sat down to finish my fries.

"Those Andalites won't get away! Block the exits!" _Damn._ I thought to myself, _we gotta get outta here._

::Rachel, we need to-:: _WHAM!_ I whirled around and looked at what made the noise.

::Already done, Jake.:: I heard Rachel say in thought-speak, smugly. Someone flew across the cave and into the Yeerk pool. Good ol' Rachel. I started to run towards the newly opened exit.

::Come on, we gotta get outta here.:: I called out to the other Animorphs. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a wolf and gorilla coming my way. Rachel, Tobias, and Ax were already outside, telling us to hurry. We made it out before Visser Three's giant lava-looking monster morph fried us, and we were only barely singed. Marco began to demorph.

"Man, that's insane. And I thought it couldn't get any worse after that one time..." Marco trailed off at that. We all demorphed and then went to our bird morphs. Privately, Cassie spoke to me.

::Jake...You seem kind of, I don't know, preoccupied ever since this morning.::

::Do I? Sorry. I hate History and I have that essay I gotta do. I also have a whole bunch of homework from my other classes...to top it all off we had a mission tonight...::

::Oh. I forgot about that History thing that happened. Well I hope you um...get your homework done. You should try to get some sleep tonight.:: She said with a concerned tone to her voice. Then to the rest of the group she said, ::Ok, I'll see you guys tomorrow.:: Then she dropped down to her house.

When I got home, I couldn't help but notice my brother moving around a lot in his room. Tom. Tom, my brother. Tom, my enemy: a Controller. I sighed and demorphed in my room. I quickly finished up other homework and started to get to work on the essay.

"Man, you look really tired." Marco noted, as I walked down the hall with him to History. "Stayed up late doing that essay?"

"Yeah and I was thinking about..." I stopped. No, I wasn't thinking about...her. I started over. "I was also doing my other 50 pounds of homework too." Marco looked at me, trying to figure out what I was going to say but I put on my "I'm tired, leave me alone" face and he stayed silent. Something was bugging me. I couldn't put my finger on it. What WAS it? This weird stirring, unsettling feeling, it all started with last night. I saw something. Something....

"Jake! Hey." I nearly jumped out of my skin, I was so startled. I lost my train of thought, too. Who said that? Layla. "You look really preoccupied. Was I bothering you?"

"No, no. I'm alright. You just startled me. I was...trying to remember if I remembered to put the essay in my backpack." I lied. "Oh" was all she said to that before she walked back to her seat. The teacher had walked in and the bell rang.

I survived History and lived through math. Now I was absolutely starving and still trying to put my finger on what was bothering me. The color red kept popping up. Red, red, red. What- "-could you be POSSIBLY thinking about that's oh SO much more important that what I have to say? A new crush?" Rachel. I forgot that she was ranting about how horrible her test went. Crush.

"Sorry. I was thinking about how um..._unfair_ it is."

"Oh. So anyway...question 21 was like...." I tuned out and went back to pondering. RED...

((omg such a short chapter I've been trying really hard to make my chapters longer but its really hard .. I squeezed everything that I could outta you, Jake! glances around Anyway. I hope its better than the original ;-; I finally remembered I had a fic here at FF, so i decided to restart it again ee I'm also working on a Harry Potter fic and stuff. Blah.))


	2. Chapter 2: Marco

Chapter Two- Marco

It didn't take much to realize that Jake was totally out of it. He's always thinking about something, yeah, but the only time I've ever seen him this stressed is when the Yeerks were planning a big thing in the middle of exams. That really sucked.

I'm thinking maybe he's stressed over our most recent mission. Sometimes when we come back kinda unsuccessful, Jake gets all moody. Typical of a big ol' guy like him. The reason for that mission the other night was to find out the rest of the leaked information we got. I don't really understand why we had to go over there and try to eavesdrop of the Visser or anything, but I went anyway. Jake said that he overheard Tom, his Controller brother, talking to a fellow Controller about pieces of a UFO that was found scattered in the jungle. A Yeerk ship on the way in had detected it when it flew over. Something like that.

So Jake wanted to see if it was the Andalites or what, and dragged us along with him. We found out nothing, except that Visser Three is very fond of his new lava-monster morph. I'm not even going to try and pronounce what Ax told us it's name was, it sounded like a bunch of jumbled sounds. But thats how everything sounds coming form Ax. I think maybe it's the fact that we didn't find out anything and he put us in danger for no reason is bothering him. Ah, perfect timing. "Hey man, what's up with you?"

"Hm? Oh. I'm fine, why?" Jake sat down across from me and popped a fry into his mouth.

"You know, if you're all mad about-" I started to say, but he cut me off.

"Mad? I'm not mad about anything."

"Fine, you're stressed." Rachel cut in. "Move over. But anyway, it's pretty obvious. What's up with you?"

"Told you, man."

Jake gave me an exasperated look at pretended to be very interested in his burger. "I'm just stressed about that stupid teacher. She gave me a C on the essay and I stayed up all night..." He trailed off, and Rachel rolled her eyes.

"Not. That was years ago. And she gave you a B. You even showed me, remember? You're probably having girl problems. I can help, I know everything about-" Cassie appeared and cut in.

"No you don't, the last time you tried to help me hook up with a guy, he turned out to be a total jerk." We all laughed and decided to leave Jake alone. Maybe I'll ask him tonight or something, when there's not too many people around. Guy to guy talk.

That night, after all my half-done homework, and a 20 minute guy-to-guy talk with Jake, he finally confessed about how he couldn't think about anything else but red. I stared at him, trying to figure out why he's suddenly obsessed with red. Jake threw a rubber bouncy ball at the wall and caught it when it bounced back. He did it again, and again, and again. He threw it so hard that it bounced off into the opposite wall and disappeared under my bed. "Don't look at me like that, Marco. I don't know why, but the color red keeps popping up. Don't ask me why, don't give me that look, don't bother me about it. I told you what's bothering me and now you can release me from your room."

"I'm just trying to help, man. Maybe its the color of the lava from Vissser Three? Just like, popping out at you, because you came close to being a french fry?" Jake's eyes widened and opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it again.

"You know, that's the smartest thing I've ever heard you say today. Maybe it IS that monster that's creeping me out. It's kinda happened before, but I never really had a close call like that." He sat there thinking for a few seconds and then stood up. "Can I leave now?"

"Yeah, whatever. I have to study for a test tomorrow anyway."

"Study? You never study?"

"I know."

I ended up totally bombing that test, the next morning. Oh well, it's not like my dad really cares. I walked out of the math classroom and headed straight to my locker. While I was trying to figure out why my locker combo wasn't working, a girl's voice with a strange accent called out from somewhere in the crowd. "Hey you. Uh, you, Sander the Grape's friend!" I turned around, it was that hot chick from History. What did she want from me? Girls like her usually hang around the big jocks.

"Yeah?" I said, trying to sound cool and not worried about my locker.

"What's your name anwyay?"

"Marco. And Sander the Grape is Jake." I corrected. I never do this. Stupid girls.

"Oh, thats right." She grinned and pushed aside a lock of crimson hair. "Uh, do you know where Mr. Chapman's office is? I'm new here and you're like, one of the only recognizable faces in the crowd."

"Mr. Chapman? I think so. Er, follow me." I stepped away from the locker, which I realized was number 805, not 508. I had been trying to break into a senior locker. Hopefully no one saw.

"You're a senior?" Damn, she saw.

"No, I was just...I know the guy who owns the locker, you see, and he wanted me to drop something off in there for him...I forgot the combo though, but thats alright." I lied.

"Want me to try? I'm pretty good at stuff like this-" Before I gave my consent, the girl went to work on the lock. "What do you think the combo is?"

"I totally forgot. Let's just leave it..."

"Naw, you can't do that. I can open it up...there ya go." I stared at her beaming face, and then the locker which swung open. "He's got a really easy combo, it was 15-30-45. Multiples of 15."

"Ok lets go...I was just kidding..."

"Oh. Well...why were-?" I grabbed her arm and ran down the stairs to the safety of the little freshmen.

"Chapman's office is through that door and to the left. It should say his name on the side. I gotta go, I'll see you in History." How the hell did she open up that guy's locker so fast? If I tried to pull something off like that, the seniors would have me pummeled before I could even turn it all the way around to 15. I went up a different flight of stairs to the floor with my locker and opened it, putting books away, and glancing at the week's schedule taped up. I didn't have History today.

I only managed to finish a little bit of homework before Jake called. "Marco, Cassie wants us to go and help her out with unloading some stuff. Her dad isn't home and her mom is sick, so she called me up to tell you."

"Got you, I'll be there in a couple minutes." I pulled on a jacket and ran out the door, telling my dad that I was going to Jake's. I went into the backyard through the gate and morphed behind the wall. I flew quickly to Cassie's.

When I got to her barn, I demorphed and sat down in the hay, shivering a little.

::How can you guys be cold? This weather is pretty nice.:: I heard Tobias tell us in thought-speak.

"For you maybe, bird-boy. But some of us are here in little biker shorts without fluffy feathers to keep us warm. Why are we here anyway?"

Cassie turned to Jake. "Well Jake?"

"Tom leaked information again. He's been really busy these past few days, and he's always had the same guy over at our house for the past week. I recognize the guy from one of our missions, he's a Controller."

"So what did this guy say that made you all hyped?"

"He came over to tell Tom that they found out that after examining the pieces from the spaceship, its an earthly metal, but it couldn't be found anywhere on or in earth. They were going on to talk about how that could be possible and Tom's friend mentioned that Visser Three thinks it came from a planet much like Earth and his plans to take over that one as well. I couldn't catch the rest because they started whispering really quietly and then he left."

::A metal from Earth that cannot be found on or in Earth?:: Tobias questioned, trying to figure it out. ::Maybe it's man-made stuff. I new metal type of metal that they're developing but no one knows about it yet.::

"No, they'd be able to find traces of earth substances in the metal, wouldn't they? And Jake said that the stuff was definently from Earth, but none of it was on Earth."

::Perhaps Visser Three is correct. But then that creates a new problem. Did Tom or the other Controller say anything about traces of a human on the metal?:: Ax said, it sounded like he almost had it figured out. Damn Andalites are too smart. The Advanced Calculus teacher popped up in my head suddenly. Huh?

"Yeah. That's why they know it's from earth. The test results said that it was definently from earth because of all the human traces on it, and the molecule roots or something. I just know that they're positive it's from earth. The Yeerks just can't figure out why it doesn't show up anywhere else on earth except that small area."

"It's probably from the future then." I joked, giving up on it already.

::The future...Marco could be on to something. Maybe the spaceship is really a timecraft. Maybe the timecraft dissolved as soon as it touched the earth and only small bits of metal remain. What I would like to know now is what happened to the person inside?:: Ax actually used one of my ideas to make it into perfectly logical scientific reasoning. I was amazed, I actually contributed some significant information. Again.

"What do you mean by that, Ax?" Cassie asked, quizzically. "The person inside probably dissolved too, if the timecraft did. If they didn't, where could they have gone? The Yeerks probably searched the whole area for any clues. If they found someone, you'd think the Yeerks would know all the answers by now."

"Well we can try and find out if they have any other information that Tom and his Controller friend didn't mention. This time we have to find a safer way, though." Rachel commented. She always wants to get down and dirty. She's pretty, but it gets annoying, and I don't even care for her good looks anymore. "What do you think Jake? Any ideas on how to get this done? Maybe we can hitch a ride on Tom the next time."

"I don't know. Last time...last time it didn't turn out half as good. Nothing we wanted happened except for our getaway." Jake looked like he won already, and that he was through. He stood up and morphed to his falcon and flew off. Rachel followed him. The rest of us looked around blankly for a minute or two and then we all went back home.

I found out the next morning that Rachel talked him into it. That girl is amazing sometimes. No, a lot of the time. But I wasn't too sure if this was the right decision.

Uh right, sorry about not updating...>>;; hides hey, at least I managed a long chapter :D! Oh well...it gets better now that I know what I'm actually doing oo


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